I've taken to cooking Sous Vide. I sprung for a rather nifty device from Anova that attached to the side of a deep pot and circulates water at a a set temperature. What this allows is to place food, usually meats, in a plastic freezer bag, seal the bag watertight (a ziploc is fine), then immerse it into the circulating water. There water gently raises the temperature to the desired level and keeps it there, without the risk of overcooking. For example, if you want to cook a steak medium rare, set the temp to 135, bag your steak and drop it in. Leave it an hour. Leave it an hour and a half. Doesn't matter: it won't go past medium rare. When you're ready to eat, pull it out and drop it in a hot skillet for a minute-ish on each side to brown it. Boom! A perfect steak. You can use similar procedures for burgers, sausages, pork, and chicken. Vegetables work less well on the whole, although denser ones such as carrots or potatoes can work.
For a kitchen idiot like me it's been a revelation. I can cook all kinds of stuff -- healthy stuff. My fave is a skinless, boneless chicken breast -- leave it for an hour in a mixture of honey and saltwater brine, sous vide for an hour, and you'll have the juiciest, tastiest chicken you've ever eaten -- no need for even a sear. Add in some frozen veggies from the microwave and it beats a Subway or Taco Bell any day.
I know serious chefs are laughing right now because I gather they think sous vide doesn't count as proper cooking, but I'm actually regularly buying food and cooking which used to be a once-in-a-blue-moon activity for me. I may make an adult of me yet.
